Type 2 - So Now What?

At first, I remember being really upset about learning that I was diabetic. I really didn't understand why I got it either. It wasn't like I fit the typical characteristics of somebody that would be prone to diabetes - the closest family member that has diabetes is my grandmother's brother on my mom's side; I didn't eat a lot of sweets; I wasn't extrememly over weight; I wasn't sedentary; I just didn't understand.

When I first told my wife, I remember that she got really worried. The same happened when I told my familly. I remember that in the begining, I was very strict with my diet. So strict that I sometimes had hypoglycemic episodes (the first of which really freaked me out). I started to run or walk on our treadmill regularly. I would check my sugar four times per day. I even wrote a web application that let me log my blood sugar levels, chart them and then print them out for the next visits with my doctor. All in all, I was very good.

As time went on, I lost weight. I think this was a combination of the change in diet and the fact that my thyroid was now working. I'm now weighing 175 lbs. which may be a little too low for my 6'2" height. This is the thinnest I've been since early high school.

After about two years, however, I started to slack off. First, I stopped checking my sugar at night, then all together. Then my diet got closer to what I was eating prior to my diabetes diagnosis. You have to understand, bread and pasta were the cornerstone of my diet. I love bread! I started to have more of it than I should and my blood sugars started to climb up bit by bit. The insurance company that we're under forces me to use mail-order prescription for anything that's long term. This led me to be out of medicine on several occasions. What would happen was that I would run out of the 90 days supply they gave me and the three refills and then have to work in time to go to my doctor's office for a prescription that I could mail to AdvanceRx. It was a royal pain and it caused my blood sugars to get a little high during these times.

My wife has been trying to get me to eat better lately, so I decided to start this blog. I hope that it will help me (and anybody that happens to stroll by) to keep my diet, excercise and medication plan on my mind. I hope to be posting pointers to articles and news about diabetes, links to diabetes related resources and maybe even a book review or two. If you would like to contribute in any way, be it in the form of comments or by writing articles, please do so. You can contact me by sending a note to rdevarona -at- gmail.com.